District 2 has determined the schedule for its first set of basketball championships to be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township February 26 and 27.
Susquehanna County teams will be trying to make their way through the brackets to play at the Luzerne County site that is the home of the American Hockey League’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
The Mohegan Sun Arena has been used for high school events on a limited basis and has never hosted a District 2 championship.
Games in classes that have county teams eligible include the Class AA girls’ championship to start the Feb. 26 tripleheader at 4:30 p.m.
The other small school titles will all be decided as part of the five-game Feb. 27 schedule.
Class A girls opens the second day schedule at noon, followed by Class A boys at 2 p.m. The Class AA boys’ final is set for 6 p.m.
Other championships on the opening night schedule are Class AAAA girls at 6:30 p.m. and Class AAA boys at 8:30.
The Feb. 27 schedule also includes Class AAA girls at 4 p.m. and Class AAAA boys at 8 p.m.
There are 15 teams in Class AA and five in Class A in both boys’ and girls’ basketball. Elk Lake, Montrose, Blue Ridge and Mountain View are AA teams while Forest City and Susquehanna are in A.
Class AA first-round games will be played on the home floor of the higher seeds. All other small school games will be played on neutral courts.
District tournament play begins Feb. 16, including first-round games in Class AA girls and quarterfinals in A boys.
The Class AA boys first round and Class A girls quarterfinals are the next night.
The next two rounds are scheduled for Feb. 18-19 in the same order.
Class AA semifinals are Feb. 22.
The third-place teams from Class AA that advance to state play will be determined Feb. 24.
Ticket prices are set at $6 for adults and $4 for students for all games prior to the finals. Tickets for each day of the finals at Mohegan Sun Arena will be $7 for adults and $4 for students. Tickets to the finals will allow fans to watch as many games as they choose on that day, however, if they leave the arena, they will be required to buy a new ticket to re-enter.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Both Elk Lake basketball teams opened their second-half Lackawanna League Division 4 schedules with key wins.
After losing to strong Holy Cross teams in crossover games while the rest of the division was opening second-half schedules, Elk Lake began the half with games against Forest City.
The Lady Warriors, who finished second in the first half, beat the first-half champion Lady Foresters, 56-38, Wednesday.
Justine Johns scored 22 points in the win.
Kendra Bendyk led Forest City with 16 points.
The first-half champion Warriors used 34 points by Bailey Newhart and 26 by Hunter Watkins Thursday to win at Forest City, 86-68, in a meeting of two of the top three teams in the division.
The Elk Lake girls then defeated Mountain View, 47-34, Friday behind 18 points by Darci Warner.
Newhart had 20 points Saturday in a 64-48 win over Mountain View.
Forest City and defending champion Montrose finished the week 2-1 and one-half game behind Elk Lake in the girls’ standings.
Montrose (3-0) has a half-game edge on Elk Lake in the boys’ standings.
The Meteors posted wins Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Montrose downed Blue Ridge, 60-53, in double overtime; defeated Mountain View, 76-61; and ripped Lackawanna Trail, 60-34.
The Meteors shot 11-for-18 from the line during the two overtimes with Blue Ridge and outscored the Raiders, 10-3, in the second overtime.
Brendan Buck scored 13 points for the Meteors. Mason Peck and Austin Smith added 12 points each.
Jacob Peck had all seven of his points in the overtimes for the winners.
Jeff Morris had six of his 14 points in the overtimes for Blue Ridge. Austin Harper added 10 points.
Smith led the Meteors with 15 points against Mountain View and 24 against Lackawanna Trail.
Blue Ridge split its division games on the week, coming back Saturday to top Forest City, 63-57, behind a 31-point effort by Morris.
Between the losses to Elk Lake and Blue Ridge, Forest City handled Susquehanna, 78-53, Thursday.
Adam Kowalewski scored 17 of his 25 points in the third quarter of the win. Dylan O’Dell made four 3-pointers while scoring 14 and Noah Yates added 12.
Garrett Grausgruber hit three times from 3-point range while leading Susquehanna with 15 points. Mason Deakin added 10.
In wrestling, Montrose split a double-dual at Mountain View Wednesday to finish the Lackawanna League Division 2 season with a winning record and place fourth out of eight teams.
Mikyle Fabrizio had a pair of first-period pins when the Meteors beat Mountain View, 50-15, and lost to Scranton Prep, 39-36.
Blue Ridge swept at home, beating Elk Lake, 54-15, and Lackawanna Trail, 36-33.
The Raiders won the last two bouts decided on the mat against the Lions, getting a one-point decision from Michael Kelly at 145 and a pin from Adam Roe at 152 to pull out the win.
The final division standings were: Western Wayne 7-0, Scranton Prep 6-1, Valley View 5-2, Montrose 4-3, Blue Ridge 3-4, Lackawanna Trail 2-5, Mountain View 1-6, Elk Lake 0-7.
COLLEGE CORNER
Adam Phillips had first-, second- and third-place finishes when Rider University returned from the semester break to defeat Seton Hall, 171-123, in swimming January 15.
Phillips, a senior from Elk Lake, won the 100-yard breaststroke in the meet while finishing second in the 200 breaststroke and third in the 100 freestyle.
As a sophomore, Phillips was a Metro Atlantic Conference champion in the 100 breaststroke to help Rider to the championship. He dropped that time 38-hundredths of a second to 56.01 in last year’s MAAC Championships then won the event at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships.
Phillips was a four-time state medalist while at Elk Lake. He also won the 100 breaststroke against Marist in November and posted a career-best 56.00 in the Big Al Open in December.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The District 2 Class AA Dual Meet Wrestling Championships are scheduled to open Wednesday at the home sites of the top two seeds.
Two rounds of wrestling will be held Wednesday to determine the two finalists and four teams that will continue in consolation bracket competition Saturday.
Montrose appears headed for one of the two wild-card berths, but the tournament field had not officially been selected at presstime. Blue Ridge had a chance to make the field but that seemed unlikely.
In boys’ basketball, first-half champion Elk Lake is at defending champion Montrose is a key Lackawanna League Division 4 game Tuesday, Feb. 9.
The teams are the last two unbeatens in the second half.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.
2016 WILL BE YEAR OF CHANGE
NASCAR has instituted many changes for the upcoming season, and more are on the way.
Mike Helton, Vice Chairman of NASCAR
Mike Helton, Vice Chairman of NASCAR sat down for an interview session last Wednesday at the Greater Talladega Area Chamber of Commerce awards luncheon, and gave his assessment of what racing fans could expect during the upcoming season.
“I’ve got a lot of enthusiasm about ’16 because ’15 felt good,” Helton said. “Particularly toward the end. The sophomore year of the elimination Chase format proved to be as exciting, some people said more exciting, than the first year, and I thought the first year was going to be hard to beat. We went into the sophomore year hoping we could top that and we did.
“Now we’ve got two years under our belt and coming out of the box at Daytona, the strategy, the craftiness of the race teams every weekend to get in the Chase and get to Homestead (Miami Speedway, the Chase’s final race) is going to contribute to each race being entertaining and exciting.”
NASCAR has decided to apply the Sprint Cup Chase format to both the Xfinity Series and Trucks.
“The Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series will have their championships wrapped up in a similar way (to Sprint Cup),” he continued. “That brings everybody together. The magnitude of the Chase has been such that it’s a natural for Xfinity and the truck series to do that.
“I don’t expect anymore tweaks. Brian (France, NASCAR CEO) has commented several times about how we struggled hard to get to the moment where we pulled the trigger on the elimination format. We struggled until we felt it was right. We talked about it for a long time and I’d go out on a ledge for it and Brian would talk me out of it, then Brian would go out on the ledge and I’d say, 'are you really sure?' It was a 10-year cycle getting it ready.
“Quite frankly, it happened from the other NASCAR officers and we sitting around in a big room and said, “Why don’t we do that? We want to do something exciting. It can’t help but be exciting.” Now it’s such an entertaining format I’d be afraid if we tweaked it any we might mess it up.”
The seven-race NASCAR Xfinity Series Chase will begin at Kentucky Speedway on Sept. 24, and feature 12 drivers and two elimination rounds, with four drivers competing in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
A win in the first 26 races all but guarantees a driver entry into the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase, provided the driver is in the top 30 in points and has attempted to qualify for each race. Drivers who win two Dash 4 Cash bonuses are also guaranteed a Chase berth.
The first round, called the Round of 12, consists of the races at Kentucky, Dover and Charlotte. All drivers will start with their points adjusted to 2,000, with three additional bonus points added to their total for each win in the first 26 races. If a driver wins a race in the Round of 12, the driver automatically advances to the next round. The remaining available positions (1-8) that have not been filled by wins will be filled on points.
Each driver who advances to the Round of 8 (Kansas, Texas, Phoenix) then will have their points reset to 3,000. Drivers who win a race in the Round of 8 automatically advance to the Championship 4. The remaining available positions (1-4) that have not been filled by wins will be filled on points.
The four drivers who advance to the Championship 4 at Homestead will have their points reset to 4,000. The highest finishing Championship 4 driver will be crowned the NASCAR XFINITY Series champion.
The seven-race NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase will begin at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 24. It will feature eight drivers and two elimination rounds, with four drivers competing in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. A win in the first 16 races all but guarantees a driver entry into that Chase, provided that the driver is in the Top-30 in points and has attempted to qualify for each race.
The first round, called the Round of 8, consists of the races at New Hampshire, Las Vegas, and Talladega. All drivers will have their points adjusted to 2,000, with three additional bonus points added to their total for each win in the first 16 races. If a driver wins a race in the Round of 8, the driver automatically advances to the next round. The remaining available positions (1-6) that have not been filled by wins will be filled on points.
Each driver who advances to the Round of 6 (Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix) then will have their points reset to 3,000. Drivers who win a race in the Round of 6 automatically advance to the Championship 4. The remaining available positions (1-4) that have not been filled by wins will be filled on points.
The four drivers who advance to the Championship 4 at Homestead will have their points reset to 4,000. The highest finishing Championship 4 driver will win the championship.
All rules outlined above also apply to both series’ owner championship structure.
“There are many things NASCAR is looking at,” Helton continued. “A charter system is one of them. I can tell you that it is not a done deal. We are working on it, along with the team owners. I know that Brian has placed a high priority on it, but that's all I can say.”
Sporting News reported that the new charter system was likely to be unveiled during Speedweeks, which begins Feb. 11, as teams prepare for the Sprint Unlimited exhibition race and the Feb. 21 season-opening Daytona 500.
Since June, NASCAR officials and team owners have been trying to complete a plan that would guarantee certain teams starting spots for all races this season and possibly reduce the weekly fields to 40 cars from the current 43.
According to SN, the plan calls for 36 charters, or car franchises, that would be guaranteed a spot in every race. Charters can be sold if an owner wanted to get out of the sport or reduce the number of full-time cars it fields.
The charter system would also give team owners more economic security with a minimum threshold of winnings earned in a season and supposedly give team owners a greater say in proposed rule changes, something the union-like Race Team Alliance pushed for in 2015.
NASCAR spokesman David Higdon said in a release: “NASCAR and NASCAR Sprint Cup team owners have continued to make progress in our discussions. There still is work to be done, but we remain very optimistic that we'll have agreements completed prior to the start of the 2016 season.” Rob Kauffman, chairman of the Race Team Alliance consortium that has been brokering the deal on behalf of the owners, also felt positive about negotiations.
Teams have lobbied NASCAR for years in hopes of some type of franchise that would make their teams more financially secure. Once the charter system is in place, prospective newcomers would have to purchase a team in order to break into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. There are no dollar estimates available on how much each team would be worth, but even the small one-car operations would be worth millions.
But no matter what happens, Rick Hendrick is not worried about his financial situation. As one of NASCAR's most successful team owners and owner of an empire of car dealerships making millions every year, any one of his four racing teams can operate on his pocket change.
This past weekend, Hendrick showed what type bank accounts he has access to.
He paid $1.2 million at the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction to buy the first production 2017 Acura NSX hybrid sports car. Don't expect him to be driving it around Charlotte. It will be added to his stable of luxury sport and collectible cars. The NSX features an engine that is powerful enough to rocket the car from 0-60 mph in 3.0 seconds and on to a top speed of 191 mph.
Racing Trivia Question: Who won the 2015 Daytona 500?
Last Week’s Question: Which driver has the most Daytona 500 wins? Answer. Richard Petty tops the list with seven. Cale Yarborough is second with four, and Jeff Gordon comes in third with three.
You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.
